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Wednesday, July 17, 2013

San Pablo de Heredia

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Iglesia Vieja de San Pablo de Heredia

I’m checking in from my husband’s home town in Costa Rica this week.

The urban experience of Costa Rica runs polar opposite to
the forest experience (which I documented in detail during the summers of 2010
and 2012).Costa Rican cities are noise
and chaos, a constant roar of cars and buzz of human activities.Streets are friendly (if somewhat dangerous), the people
conversational and fun.

I wish I could say endless good things about it, but the
truth is cities are not my favorite place to be, and this is no exception.

Still, Costa Rica, with all its faces, is a place after my
own heart (quite literally).I’m very
much enjoying our stay with my husband’s family.It’s been a great opportunity to reconnect
with old friends and new dreams.

While enjoying life in the tropics, I’ve been taking
advantage of my summer break to get things in order for High Maga. We put the manuscript through a first round a copy
edits.It will likely go through a second round
in the not-so-distant future, thanks to some additional changes I made.

I have to admit, I very much like having a generous lead
time between now and when the novel hits the market next spring.I like being able to mull over things, to
revisit the manuscript after having been away from it for a while, and to have
a chance to find fixes for that handful of sticky paragraphs that still nag at
me.

My most exciting email this week came from Thomas
Vandenberg, who has finished the backdrop for the cover art for High Maga.It is, in a word, stunning.I have seen Tom’s work and I know he is a great artist,
but I never imagined he would capture the look and feel of the South Woods so
completely.I cannot wait to share it
with all of you, though I will wait, since the cover art is still a work in
progress.

The noise and activity of Heredia is not particularly conducive
to writing, so I’ve focused mostly on finishing copy edits and attending to
other tasks that don’t require large blocks of quiet time.Even so, I’ve made some progress on Daughter of Aithne.The manuscript topped 40K last week. I’m in
the middle of crafting the novel’s first climactic event, a sequence of horror
and tragedy for almost everyone involved.That's all the news for now. On Saturday, we will break free of the city and head for the beach. With any luck, I will have spotted some dolphins -- or at the very least, a few monkeys -- next time I check in.

Women and Science

Join author and ecologist Karin Rita Gastreich for an ongoing exploration of women and science. How have gender stereotypes influenced the practice of science? How have women contributed to science? Watch out for some interesting parallels between science and fantasy fiction.